How to choose a web designer.

Choose a web designer the way you would choose anyone doing work on your house: ask for one number in writing, ask what you will own at the end, and look at work you can open yourself. Four things decide it — the written scope, the ownership, the proof and the communication. Red flags: a retainer you cannot leave, a price with no scope, and a portfolio you cannot visit.

Reviewed October 9, 2026. Prices are quoted per project; nothing on this page is a published price list.

The short answer

One written scope. One price. Work you can open. Everything in your name.

Those four answers separate a designer you can work with from one you will have to leave. Everything else — tools, frameworks, size of team, how many awards — is detail that changes the experience but rarely the outcome. Ask the four questions early and most of the decision makes itself.

The questions worth asking first

What exactly does the price cover? Pages, revisions, launch, and what happens when the scope changes. If the answer is an hourly rate, ask what the ceiling is.
Who owns the domain, the hosting and the code at the end? It should be you, from day one, not on request later.
Can I open the work myself? Not screenshots — live sites, with the client’s permission, ideally one that has been running for a while.
Who writes the words and supplies the images? Content is what actually delays projects, so know whose job it is before you pay.
What happens after launch? Support, edits, and the price of a small change six months from now.

Ownership is not a detail

A designer who registers the domain in their own account holds something that is yours. It is the most common way a small business ends up renting its own web address, and it is invisible until you try to leave. Ask who holds the four registrations — domain, hosting, code, email — and get the answer in writing. Here is how to check in ten minutes.

Red flags

A price with no scope attached, or a quote that arrives before anyone has asked what the site must do.
A monthly retainer that is required to keep your own site online.
A guarantee of rankings, AI-answer placement or enquiry volumes. Nobody can honestly promise that, and a guarantee is a warning sign.
A portfolio of screenshots with no links, or live sites you cannot identify as theirs.
No written contract: scope, price, revisions and delivery date should be in one document.
Hosting and email set up in an account you cannot log into.

Freelancer, agency or builder

Route	How it is usually priced	Who does the work	When it fits
Freelancer	Per project or per hour — ask for one number in writing	One person, sometimes with a collaborator	You want direct contact and a single point of responsibility
Agency	Per project, often with a retainer after	A team: strategy, design, build, account management	The project needs several disciplines at once and budget covers the overhead
Website builder (DIY)	Monthly subscription plus your own time	You	You will edit it yourself constantly and never want a developer involved
Firmitas	One fixed price per project, quoted in writing	One founder-developer, start to finish	You want a hand-built site, owned outright, with no retainer

Honest version: a builder is often the right answer for someone who will maintain the site themselves, and an agency is the right answer for a project that genuinely needs a team. We are the right answer for a specific person — see custom versus builder for the longer comparison.

How to compare two quotes

Put them side by side on scope, not on number. Count the pages, the revisions, the working features and what is excluded. Check whether launch, domain setup and handover are included or extra, and whether the price holds if the work runs long. A cheaper quote usually covers fewer pages, fewer revisions, or leaves the accounts in someone else’s name — that is not always a bad trade, but it should be a deliberate one.

Send us a quote you have and we will tell you straight whether it is fair, whether or not you hire us.

How we work

You describe the business, we come back with one written scope, one fixed price and one delivery date, you approve a private preview, then we launch and hand over every account and password. No hourly meter, no retainer, no lock-in: the five steps, in order and what fixed price actually means.

Questions

How do I know a quote is fair?

Compare scope rather than number: pages, revisions, working features, launch and handover, and what is excluded. A lower price usually buys fewer of those. Send us the quote and we will say whether it is fair — whether or not you hire us, because a bad quote you accept is worse for everyone than a straight answer.

Should I hire a freelancer or an agency?

If the project needs one person who owns the whole result, a freelancer. If it needs several disciplines running at once — brand, copy, build, ongoing campaigns — an agency, with the budget that implies. The honest test is how many people the work actually needs, not how impressive the team chart looks.

What should I avoid outright?

A retainer required to keep your own site online, a price with no scope, a portfolio you cannot open, hosting in someone else’s name, and any guarantee of rankings or AI-answer placement. Any one of those is worth walking away from; together they describe most of the horror stories.

We already have a designer. Can you take over?

Yes. Most of that work is inspection first: what exists, who holds each account, and whether repairs beat a rebuild. We quote the smaller option when it is the honest answer, and another developer’s site is no obstacle — the source is just files.

Tell us what you need. Send a few rough lines and we will come back with a scope, a fixed price and a delivery date in writing.

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